Internet Access in the Middle East Disrupted After Undersea Cables Are Mysteriously Cut

Over the weekend, crucial undersea cables providing internet access to parts of Asia were mysteriously cut,  leading to internet outages in certain parts of the Middle East and Asia.

The initial news seems to have originated from a Microsoft announcement published on Sunday. The announcement reads, in part: “Starting at 05:45 UTC on 06 September 2025, network traffic traversing through the Middle East may experience increased latency due to undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea.” Gizmodo reached out to the company for more information.

From the available reporting, much of which comes from the Associated Press, it’s still unclear who has actually been impacted. Netblocks, the internet monitoring service, claims that the cable cuts led to “degraded internet connectivity in multiple countries, including #Pakistan and #India; the incident is attributed to failures affecting the SMW4 and IMEWE cable systems near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.”

The AP report notes that the Saudi government hasn’t acknowledged the outages, although Kuwait did announce damage to the FALCON GCX cable, which runs through the Red Sea. Internet access outside of that geographic region isn’t expected to be impacted, Microsoft said.

Some suspicion has apparently been thrown on Houthi rebel groups who have operated in the Red Sea for months, although AP notes that such groups have denied attacking the cables in the past. In March, three cables in the Red Sea were cut, and suspicion was cast on the Houthis. We still don’t know who was responsible for that incident. The Houthis say their military efforts are intended to disrupt Israel’s violent military campaign in Gaza.

In recent years, there’s been rising concern about damage to cables, and some onlookers see evidence of geopolitical sabotage. The International Cable Protection Committee (yes, there is such a thing) meets annually to discuss political and technical solutions to better bolster protections for the aquatic network of vital internet infrastructure.

Earlier this year, cable disruptions near the Baltics and Taiwan inspired accusations of intervention by America’s foes, NBC previously reported. That said, it’s also possible that cables are frequently being damaged unintentionally, sometimes by large ocean freighters or other environmental disturbances.